Dell EMC - Experts & Thought Leaders

Mission 500, the charitable organisation dedicated to serving the needs of children and communities in crisis, proudly announces Nikki Nemarich as its newest board member, representing one of its esteemed sponsors, Axis Communications. Nikki’s extensive experience and dedication to the security industry make her an invaluable addition to Mission 500. 2021, Nikki has been instrumental in driving the company’s digital marketing efforts, placing customers at the forefront of its marketing strategy, and developing programs that highlight Axis’ role as a strategic advisor in the physical security and video surveillance industries. Mission 500 and its partners With over 22 years of high-tech marketing, Nikki has a proven track record of success With over 22 years of high-tech marketing and leadership experience, Nikki has a proven track record of success. Prior to her role at Axis Communications, she held significant positions at NEOS (now Capco), Carousel Industries (now NWN Carousel), EMC (now Dell EMC), and webMethods (now Software AG). Her expertise in global campaigns, field marketing, communications, and sales training programs has made her a respected figure within the industry. “I am excited and honoured to join Mission 500 as a representative of Axis Communications,” said Nikki Nemarich. “Being able to contribute to such a meaningful cause aligns perfectly with my personal values and professional mission. I am excited to collaborate with Mission 500 and its partners to make a positive impact in communities in need.” Mission 500’s board “We are thrilled to welcome Nikki Nemarich as our newest Mission 500 member, representing Axis Communications,” said Tracy Larson, Co-Chair of Mission 500. “Her extensive experience and passion for making a difference align perfectly with our mission to serve children and communities in need. We look forward to collaborating with Nikki and Axis Communications to further our impact in the security industry and beyond.” Nikki Nemarich’s commitment to making a positive impact in both the security industry and the community at large makes her an exemplary addition to Mission 500’s board.

BCDVideo, the global video data infrastructure solutions company, announced the appointment of Fredy Issa as Managing Director of the Middle East, Russia, Africa, and Turkey (MERAT) region. With 15 years of security industry experience, Issa is an internationally respected expert in IT, telecommunications, and security. He will continue to expand the aggressive growth ambitions for BCDVideo in the region. “I believe in the vision of BCDVideo and am excited to join the team to help expand their business, influence and success in the Middle East, Russia, Africa and Turkey region,” said Fredy Issa, adding “When it comes to data storage for video surveillance, no one can do it better than BCD.” Customised video data infrastructure solutions Issa adds, “Their customised video data infrastructure solutions, fast delivery of products, impressive network of partners, longstanding partnership with Dell Technologies, and reputation as a trusted advisor across the industry, truly distinguish BCD from the rest. These are just some of the reasons why I decided to join this globally renowned company.”    “I am delighted to welcome Fredy Issa as our new Managing Director of the Middle East, Russia, Africa and Turkey region,” said Jeff Burgess, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at BCDVideo. Sales expert Fredy is a strategic, proactive business leader with practical and proven abilities to optimise sales performance" Jeff adds, “Fredy is a strategic, proactive business leader with practical and proven abilities to optimise sales performance, across an international scale. Fredy, along with Rami Fakhreddine, Gurhan Yildiz, Wael Noureddine, and Hassan Makki will be a great asset to the BCD team.” Fredy Issa comes to BCDVideo from Dell Technologies, where he held the position of General Manager of the Surveillance, IoT and Smart/Digital Cities business for MERAT region. He led a team that delivered impressive, profitable growth and hundreds of millions of dollars of annual revenue. Vast industry experience Prior to that, he worked as District Manager, Digital Security & CCTV at Dell EMC in Dubai and at GE Healthcare in France as Regional Sales Manager. In addition to Fredy Issa’s hire, BCDVideo is also welcoming to the team, four former Dell employees. The following individuals join BCD under these appointed roles: Rami Fakhreddine, Regional Sales Manager for Qatar, and Gulf States Gurhan Yildiz, Regional Sales Manager for Turkey, and CIS Wael Noureddine, Regional Sales Director for Saudi Arabia Hassan Makki, Regional Sales Manager for the United Arab Emirates

BCD International, the global video data infrastructure manufacturer composed of the BCDVideo, Video Storage Solutions, and BCDOEM brands, announced the grand opening of the BCD International Inc. India Build Centre. This engineering and manufacturing facility reinforces its partnership with Dell EMC and strategically positions BCD in the market to expand its OEM and security customer base. As Dell’s number one OEM partner for surveillance and Internet of Things (IoT), BCD is expanding its product availability, operations, service and support in two key regions for their customers: Middle East, Turkey, Africa (META), and Asia Pacific (APAC). The India Build Centre empowers BCD to be an extension of the regional Dell sales teams and enables the in-region build, certification, delivery and deployment of purpose-built solutions for video surveillance, analytics, computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI). Inter-company logistics Brings the power of Dell and the expertise of BCD together to jointly address the mutual customer’s needs “The expansion of BCD into India is another step toward our joint partnership of addressing customers’ needs globally. BCD not only has the ability to ship orders in a matter of days, but we have also worked out the inter-company logistics between Dell and BCD to ensure the direct Dell sales teams within the META and APAC regions get compensated directly from their company and are engaged in critical deals,” said Kelly Carlberg, Global Alliance Manager for Dell Technologies at BCD. “This helps both companies maintain a singular view to the customer. It brings the power of Dell and the expertise of BCD together to jointly address our mutual customer’s needs.” Video surveillance consultation “The opening of BCD International’s India Build Centre is a game-changer for the Safety/Security and Computer Vision market in APAC. We are the first company focused entirely in this fast-growth industry, offering value-added video surveillance infrastructure consultation, OEM, design, sales, implementation and support,” said Andrew Hubble, Managing Director for APAC at BCD. “I’m really looking forward to replicating the success that BCD has enjoyed in the Americas and Europe with our global partners, the dynamic APAC partners, and channel that I’ve worked with over the last 25 years.” Customer feedback “I am overjoyed to see BCDVideo extend their unparalleled customer service and industry proven solutions to India,” said Kaivalyamurti “KV” Swami, who serves as a Technology Overseer for BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha®. BAPS temples have deployed BCD solutions for over a decade, with their international headquarters also located in Ahmedabad. “I have been privileged to experience first-hand the highest level of customer support one could expect. It brings extra comfort to know that the same service and solutions will now be available to our organization locally in India.” BCD infrastructure The facility is federated with the BCD USA Innovation and OEM Build Centres Located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the India Build Centre spans 1,524 metres (5,000 square feet) and features meeting rooms and a technology lab capable of building 75 systems simultaneously. The facility is federated with the BCD USA Innovation and OEM Build Centres, enabling the BCD technology team to do Quality Assurance (QA) checks to ensure the highest level of product integrity. Monitoring the India Build Centre are high-definition cameras and video management software, provided by key BCD vendor partners. The core IT technology within the centre is built on Intel-infused newest-generation BCD server equipment, an Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise video network infrastructure, and Seagate Technology enterprise and surveillance AI hard drives. All 75 station monitors are Dell-branded, along with administrative equipment using OptiPlex workstations and Latitude notebooks. Additional build centres The India Build Centre is the first of multiple BCD will launch in 2021. Later this month, BCD will open centres in Mexico City and the Netherlands, servicing the Latin America and Europe regions, respectively. In quarter two, BCD anticipates opening additional build centres within the APAC region, as well as business sales offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Milestone Systems is embracing artificial intelligence and deep learning in a big way at this week's yearly Milestone Community Days (MIPS 2018) in Las Vegas. The Danish company's theme is "Creating an Intelligent World," and Milestone's stated goal is to make "the Milestone community part of every surveillance installation in the world."    Science fiction becomes reality In a presentation on opening day, Milestone CSMO Kenneth Hune Petersen pointed to the 2002 movie The Minority Report as highlighting a variety of gadgets and systems that seemed futuristic at the time but are now perfectly possible, and in some cases outdated. Films have previously highlighted gadgets and systems that were futuristic, but are now perfectly possible, or outdated "If we dare to dream together we can make this a better world," says Petersen. "Through AI and machine learning, we can help define tomorrow. There's no doubt about it: There is a massive business opportunity for us in artificial intelligence." Despite all the talk about artificial intelligence, only about 0.5 percent of all the data in the world has currently been analysed or used, says Peterson. "Our open platform technology is the foundation for intelligent video systems and our partners have the expertise and infrastructure needed to reach the next frontier in intelligent video solutions," said Bjørn Skou Eilertsen, Milestone Systems CTO. "Together, we can provide unlimited solutions for our customers." Deeper integration and broader coverage Expanding the Milestone community this year has included the addition of 1,000 new models of supported hardware devices; there are currently more than 7,000 models supported. Milestone is also pursuing broader coverage of installations through their partners, with deeper integration of functionality, and by deepening existing relationships with customers. ‘Creating an intelligent world’ includes deep learning and lots of video systems, says Milestone at their annual conference Under new agreements, hardware partners such as Dell EMC and BCDVideo now provide XProtect Essential+ software pre-loaded on servers they sell. The focus at MIPS 2018 on AI included a presentation by Tanmay Bakshi, the "world's youngest IBM coder" and TED Talk speaker, at 14 years old. The prodigy, who has been coding since the age of 4, has worked with IBM and other companies on a variety of AI-related projects. Using deep learning with video is currently limited because so much video is unlabelled and unstructured In his MIPS 2018 keynote speech, Bakshi traced the development of AI through high-profile events, such as IBM's development of the "Watson" computer, which successfully competed on Jeopardy!, and Google's development of AlphaGo, a program that successfully plays the complex ancient board game, Go. Data demands deep-learning Bakshi focused on security and healthcare as two disciplines where deep learning can potentially have a big impact. Using deep learning with video is currently limited because so much video is unlabeled and unstructured. Still, projections are that there will be a billion cameras worldwide by 2020, providing an over-abundance of data that demands the use of deep learning to make sense of it all. "There is a misconception that AI is meant to replace us, to make humans obsolete. AI is not replacing us. It is created by humans to amplify human skills. AI can reduce information overload to enable humans to work with the data more efficiently," said Bakshi. He suggested that AI is equivalent to IA; Bakshi's abbreviation meaning "intelligence augmented." AI can reduce information overload to enable humans to work with the data more efficiently The ability to scale AI applications using "distributed deep learning" and graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware is paving the way for greater use of deep learning in video applications. Adam Scraba, Global Business Development Lead at NVIDIA, outlined the trends that are making the current "Big Bang" of deep learning possible. He said it is "the most exciting time in tech history," with "software that can write its own software" now among the tools that make previously unsolvable problems now solvable. AI-driven intelligent video analytics can now achieve "super-human" results, he said. An intelligent world to combat crime Instead of sitting for hours staking out a suspected drug dealer alone, entire investigations now take hours instead of days A success story about the game-changing capabilities of video data was supplied by Hartford, Conn.'s Capital City Crime Center (C4). The Hartford police department uses video data in a "predictive policing" approach. They have created an "intelligent world with smart policing to combat drug trafficking," according to C4 Supervisor Johnmichael O'Hare of the Hartford Police Department. Instead of sitting for hours staking out a suspected drug dealer, for example, video of a site can be analysed to determine areas with higher levels of foot traffic that indicate drug buys. The result is investigations that take hours instead of days. Hartford incorporates several technologies, including ShotSpotter gunshot detection, Briefcam video synopsis and other systems, all tied together using the Milestone platform. More than 700 attendees make MIPS 2018 the largest such event ever, and exhibits by around 60 Milestone partner companies attest to the continuing expansion of the Milestone community. [Main image: Tanmay Bakshi (left) and Johnmichael O’Hare of the Hartford Police Department (right) discuss key security issues of the modern day]

In a significant move for the video security market, BCDVideo has announced that it is set to become Dell EMC’s OEM partner in the video surveillance space. For nearly a decade, the Chicago-based company has been known as a key OEM partner of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), providing storage and networking technology to security integrators on a global scale. This latest partnership will allow BCDVideo to take their offerings to the next level. BCDVideo Vice President Tom Larson spoke to SourceSecurity.com to discuss the reasoning behind the deal, and how the programme will benefit partners, integrators, and end-users alike. Expanding BCDVideo's product offering For BCDVideo, the HPE OEM programme has been widely acknowledged as a success, allowing the company to leverage a globally recognised brand and provide high-quality, reliable solutions across video networking and access control. Nevertheless, explains Larson, HPE server solutions are primarily suited to large-scale enterprise projects, and are therefore unable to accommodate for the growth in small- and medium-sized surveillance applications. The global collaboration with Dell EMC will allow BCDVideo to open up a broader product offering, building on success in the larger enterprise market to offer tailored solutions to SMEs. Our aim is to look at all best of breed technology to serve the video surveillance marketplace, and that means multiple partnerships” Support for integrators By leveraging Dell EMC’s sophisticated digital storage platforms, BCDVideo will now be able to offer a more cost-effective solution to integrators, without sacrificing the resilience and IT-level service that BCDVideo is known for. With access to Dell EMC’s expansive global sales and technical teams, the company hopes to expand its reach, all-the-while providing partners with around-the-clock technical support and a five-year on-site warranty. Customers should be reassured that BCDVideo will continue to offer HPE platforms, service, and support. “Our aim is to look at all best-of-breed technology to serve the video surveillance marketplace, and that means multiple partnerships,” says Larson.  “The addition of Dell EMC to our portfolio is a major win for BCDVideo, for Dell EMC, and for our integrators.” The global collaboration with Dell EMC will allow BCDVideo to open up a broader product offering Meeting surveillance market demands At the technology level, assures Larson, Dell EMC’s server offering is well suited to handle the increasing video resolution and growing camera count demanded by the surveillance industry. At the larger end of the spectrum, the company’s Isilon Scale-Out NAS solution can handle tens of petabytes of data, making it ideal for large-scale security applications such as city-wide surveillance and airport security. Dell EMC storage solutions are already proving successful at major international airports including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, each with a camera count in the 1000s.Dell EMC and BCDVideo together are ensuring our customers get the right solutions designed for the surveillance market” For Dell EMC, the new partnership means the ability to expand on this success in the enterprise market, leveraging BCDVideo’s surveillance expertise and high-level customer service to offer tailored solutions for lower-volume applications. Since its inception, BCDVideo has differentiated itself in the security space by providing a high level of IT service to integrators making the transition to IP systems. By combining resources, the partners will be able to service VMS and analytics companies, software vendors, and access control providers, as well as traditional business integrators. Ken Mills, General Manager Dell EMC Surveillance, explains: “Surveillance storage is not just about capacity, it is also about performance and reliability. Dell EMC and BCDVideo together are ensuring our customers get the right solutions designed for the surveillance market.” Accomodating for growth BCDVideo is well placed to accommodate this anticipated growth. Last year, the company opened a new 51,000-square-foot global headquarters in Illinois, home to 90 separate stations within their Innovation Center where each system is customised according to integrator needs. The new facility allows for expanding business with new and existing partners in the security market.

Video surveillance solutions have come a long way in recent years, including this past one, with IP-based imaging solutions delivering incredible resolution and detail to provide higher levels of situational awareness, information and overall security. In 2017, we also witnessed how video surveillance serves an emerging need and desire to acquire greater business intelligence. Today’s cameras and VMS are able to truly deliver on the promise of IP video without requiring end users to break the bank on infrastructure and storage. To that end, technologies such as low-light and WDR technology, smart compression and advanced camera analytics solved many end user security challenges in 2017. Emerging video analytics in 2018 In 2018, video analytics will increasingly be used for a wide range of solutions including to reduce risk, enable efficiencies, reduce costs, ensure compliance and provide faster access to stored video. Emerging video analytics such as behaviour recognition technologies will allow security personnel to more accurately detect irregularities in behaviours that can trigger alerts and allow for a proactive response and effective risk mitigationBehaviour recognition technologies will allow security personnel to more accurately detect irregularities in behaviours that can trigger alerts  We also expect to see the beginnings in the industry of advanced applications of video analytics, including artificial intelligence, predictive and reactive analytics, and machine learning, all of which will ultimately broaden the use of analytics beyond security operations to business intelligence applications. Pelco re-brand In 2017, Pelco emerged again as a strong industry player in video surveillance. The company re-branded to signal that we are “moving ahead – by your side” and delivered on that promise with the launch of new products like VideoXpert™ Professional VMS, exciting partnerships with Dell, V5 Systems, Ruckus and more. Pelco focused its attention on key segments such as airports, oil and gas and city surveillance to better understand customer pain points and continuously improve products and services to minimise these challenges. In 2018, Pelco is uniquely positioned to deliver product and technology enhancements, new integrations and new solutions that bring meaningful innovation to the market.